The Nets come to town finding themselves 3 1/2 games out of the eighth and final playoff spot with seven games remaining, much to the dismay of those who picked the Nets to come out of the east - you can stick a fork in them!! The "zoo crew" looked good against the T-Wolves, lets see how they look against a more seasoned team.

Easy win over the Vince-less Nets, with Sheed and Dice on fire, a combined 16-23 for 36 points. Stuckey and Dixon both went for double figures off the bench, and for once the Zoo Crew held their own in garbage time instead of getting outscored by double figures! Aside from Ratliff not getting in the game, everyone who was dressed (Rip sat out) played between 15 and 29 minutes. Good solid game by pretty much everyone, with some posterizing dunks by Stromile Swift being about the only highlight for the Nets.

That was easy. No Rip, so Afflalo gets the start. And we start off with a very good defensive stand.

Dyess played quite a bit, what about 25 minutes. 19 points on about 9-12 shooting. Just about all midrangers. NJ chose not to guard Dyess much and he made them pay.

Tay played about the same. Of note, we used him as the point guard quite a bit to start the game.

Sheed scored inside and out. CB did some damage against Armstrong.
Stuckey dished out 9 assists and had 14 points. This included one jumper just inside the 3 point line. Most of his points were getting to the hoop. I am fairly sure thats a career high in assists for Stuckey, right after getting his career high in points last game. (27)

Afflalo scored very little, just played a lot of good D mostly. He did push the ball up the floor well here and there and got some assists.

Amir played all he could. He fouled out with a couple of minutes left in the game. Several rebounds. An offensive rebound putback off a missed foul shot. One score in the post. A couple of steals. Lots of hustle. I think he played pretty close to 20 minutes.

Maxiell played, though not a ton. One spactacular slam, several rebounds.

No Samb. No Theo. Hermann played the last 14 mintues of the game. Hermmann had a couple of scored around the basket, wowing the crowd a bit using those huge paws of his.

Hayes played, made some shots. Missed several too.

You want a shooter off the bench? Dixon looked pretty good as a guy who can score the ball at least. Yes, he is way short. But he can score, and he is quicker than Hayes. We could maybe put Afflalo as the backup small forward and play Dixon some at backup shooting guard. Anything has to be better than Hayes. (Although Herrmann did not exactly wow me on defense tonight either.)

Good win. We maintain a lead on the West teams in case we meet them in the NBA Finals. We play our main young guys plenty; good preparation for the playoffs. We play Prince at the point more to give us that option. We auditioned Herrmann extensively as a backup small forward. (I don't think that is the solution but at least its trying something different.) And of course, the fans at the Palace got to see a win. Always makes the trip more fun.

GO PISTONS!!!!!

Here is what I wrote before the game on how we should play our players. The game was not too far off the mark:

One, play Stuckey, Afflalo, JMAX, Amir, and Samb a lot.

Two, continue to rest all our starters a lot. Its ok if they play a little. But not ok if any play much more than 15 mintues.

Whether we do or do not play our starters, we can beat NJ. Playing NJ is no excuse to play any of our starters much.

Three, solve backup small forward. Hayes will not work there. He can't play defense. Sure, he tries his best, but he just can't do it. He is not going to hit enough jumpers to make up for all the points he would give up. Besides, we really have enough guys shooting jumpers as is without him adding to the problem. My solution: Play Amir at small forward. Defensively, we have used Amir as a small forward a lot. Why not just put him in there as a small forward and tell him to defend and rebound like Rodman use to. And of course, since he would be on the floor more, just maybe the team could run some plays for him too. He can score readily, if given some plays.

Four, play some of your extra players just in case you will be needing them. Herrmann, Hunter, and Dixon fall into this category. Who knows, one of them could end up playing some for us. By not playing the starters too much, there is plenty of time for these other guys. Of course, a win might not be possible if you play them too much.

Five. Keep playing Theo into shape. But not too much if you want to win. (Which is not that important. But everyone likes to see a win. Me included.)

Now, after the game, I will add this. Instead of playing Hayes, we could play Amir at small forward, leaving some time for Samb to play at center. Basically swapping Hayes minutes for Samb's minutes. Now, some people claim Samb is too llight to play proper defense. But how much worse can you get than Hayes in the defense department. Meanwhile, we would be adding a lot of shotblocking to our rotation. As for the shots Hayes makes, Samb can shoot the ball quite effectively himself 17 feet and in. And oh, his shot is pretty much unguardable.

Good win. We maintain a lead on the West teams in case we meet them in the NBA Finals. We play our main young guys plenty; good preparation for the playoffs. We play Prince at the point more to give us that option. We auditioned Herrmann extensively as a backup small forward. (I don't think that is the solution but at least its trying something different.) And of course, the fans at the Palace got to see a win. Always makes the trip more fun.

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Thank you. Very few seem to realize that but it is very important.

Very entertaining game.

What is this odd fascination that some have with Walter Herman? He gets so many cheers.

What is this odd fascination that some have with Walter Herman? He gets so many cheers.

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It is of importance. But minor. Far less important than getting the team ready. You got to win the East before you can get to the NBA Finals.

With our key young players getting lots of time, we continue to be on a path to win it all. No, I still do not trust Flip. I believe he would derail everything if given half a chance to do so. For now, things are going pretty darn good. I say everyone keep vigilant. Don't take things for granted.

It is of importance. But minor. Far less important than getting the team ready. You got to win the East before you can get to the NBA Finals.

With our key young players getting lots of time, we continue to be on a path to win it all. No, I still do not trust Flip. I believe he would derail everything if given half a chance to do so. For now, things are going pretty darn good. I say everyone keep vigilant. Don't take things for granted.

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Flip already said that he's not afraid to use 10-11 player rotation in the playoffs. However, as I mentioned in one of my previous posts, I have to see it to believe it before I believe that he'll do just that instead of twitching and playing starters 40+min.